Renee Kathleen Zellweger

Renee Kathleen Zellweger, was born in Katy, Texas on April 25, 1969. Her mother, Kjellfrid (Andreassen), is an ex-nurse and midwife born in Norway. Kven (Finnish), as well as being of Swedish as well as Norwegian descent. Emil Erich Zellweger, her father, is a Swiss engineer. The couple got have been married since 1963. Drew Zellweger was Renee's older brother. He is an executive in the field of marketing who was born February 15, 1967. Renee was part of the drama club at high school, and was fascinated by acting. She took an acting course at the University of Texas (Austin) and began thinking about acting as a career. After graduation, she wished to continue acting, but Hollywood is a difficult city to get into, so Renee made the decision to stay in Texas and auditioned for roles around Houston where she was able to grab roles in such films such as Reality Bites (1994) and Empire Records (1995). While filming the sequel to that film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994) she made friends with Matthew McConaughey, another Hollywood up-and-comer. Renee was able to observe him working on a project that was of interest to her. She was a part-time auditioner and got the part in Love and A.45 (1994). It earned her enough critical praise that she decided to relocate to Los Angeles. She was then offered a role in The Whole Wide World (1996) and it gave her an opportunity to make her debut as a major actress. Cameron Crowe was busy casting Jerry Maguire (1996) which starred Tom Cruise. Crowe was looking into actresses like Bridget Fonda (Camden Diaz), Winona Ryder (Winona Ryder) and Marisa Tomei. He saw Zellweger's performance in The Whole Wide World (1996). The audition was conducted by Zellweger to confirm that he was his Dorothy Boyd. After her successes in a handful of independent films, Renee felt confident enough to go back to the big-budget Hollywood film industry. Meryl Streep appeared alongside her in One True Thing (1998). She also starred in Me, Myself & Irene (2000) in which she starred alongside Jim Carrey, and soon after that, she started dating Jim Carrey. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) was her first film in the title role.